Sudanese president arrives in Chad as ICC asks for his arrest

February 15, 2013 (WASHINGTON) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir arrived in the Chadian capital of Ndjamena on Friday afternoon in a new defiance of the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants issued against him in 2009 and 2010.

Bashir is charged with ten counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide he allegedly masterminded in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

He is representing Sudan in the the Community of Sahel-Saharan (CEN-SAD) summit

Chad, a member of the ICC, is theoretically obligated to apprehend the Sudanese leader once he arrived on its territory.

But the government in Ndjamena has showed no interest in enforcing the warrant as this marks the third time that Bashir has visited since the Hague-based court ordered his arrest.

On Friday, the ICC judges issued an order at the request of prosecutor Fatou Bensouda reminding Chad of its obligations under the court’s founding document known as the Rome Statute.

"The Chamber notes that the Republic of Chad is a State Party to the Statute since 1 January 2007, and accordingly, it is under the obligation, in accordance with articles 86 and 89 of the Statute, to execute the pending Court’s decisions concerning the arrest and surrender of Omar Al-Bashir," the judges said in court documents published on the ICC website.

"The Chamber further notes that according to article 87(7) of the Statute "[w]here a State Party fails to comply with a request to cooperate by the Court contrary to the provisions of this Statute [...] the Court may make a finding to that effect and refer the matter to the Assembly of States Parties or, where the Security Council referred the matter to the Court, to the Security Council".

Chad’s previous non-cooperation instances were reported to the UNSC along with other ICC members who received Bashir including Malawi, Kenya and Djibouti.

But the UNSC took no action against these nations and the African Union (AU) issued a resolution backing the decision of these countries to allow Bashir’s visit.

Members of the AU rallied behind Bashir and decided that the continent will not cooperate with the ICC in apprehending the Sudanese leader though several countries did not abide by it.

The AU summit that took place in Addis Ababa last month omitted the usual mention of urging its members to ignore ICC warrant against Bashir. A source told Sudan Tribune that African diplomats did not believe this was a pressing issue warranting discussion this time around.

The president of the ICC Assembly of State Parties Tiina Intelmann transmitted a demarche to ambassadors of Chad in New York and in Brussels on Thursday to urge cooperation by Chad with the ICC. She also wrote a letter to Chad’s foreign minister Moussa Faki Mahmat.

Close to 100 human right groups and law societies across Africa signed a letter addressed to the Chadian president urging him to honor his country’s obligations to the ICC.

"Permitting President al-Bashir to visit Chad without executing these warrants would run counter to Chad’s obligations as a state party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, in particular Articles 86 and 89(1). It would also send damaging signals to victims of mass atrocities in Darfur and globally, and undermine Chad’s credibility on issues of justice and accountability," said the letter seen by Sudan Tribune.

"[W]e urge the Chadian government to clearly affirm its commitment to cooperate with the ICC, as states such as South Africa, Uganda and Botswana, and Malawi have already done, and clarify that should President al-Bashir enter Chad, he will be arrested. This would be an important way to demonstrate respect for victims of the crimes committed, along with Chad’s commitment to end impunity".

The ICC judges today also called on Libya to arrest Bashir should he visit as reported this week by state-linked media. It was said that the Sudanese president would fly to Tripoli from Chad to attend the celebrations commemorating the outbreak of the revolution that toppled the regime of late leader Muammar Gaddafi.

But a source in New York told Sudan Tribune today that the Libyan mission confirmed that Bashir will not be travelling there.

The United Nations has estimated that around 300,000 people have died during the conflict in Darfur and some 2 million people been displaced. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.

(ST)

Comments on the Sudan Tribune website must abide by the following rules. Contravention of these rules will lead to the user losing their Sudan Tribune account with immediate effect.

- No inciting violence
- No inappropriate or offensive language
- No racism, tribalism or sectarianism
- No inappropriate or derogatory remarks
- No deviation from the topic of the article
- No advertising, spamming or links
- No incomprehensible comments

Due to the unprecedented amount of racist and offensive language on the site, Sudan Tribune tries to vet all comments on the site.

There is now also a limit of 400 words per comment. If you want to express yourself in more detail than this allows, please e-mail your comment as an article to comment@sudantribune.com

Kind regards,

The Sudan Tribune editorial team.

16 February 2013 05:24, by Mi diit

ICC is a toothless dog that will keep on begging other nations forever to arrest Bashir for them. That may not happen during Bashir’s lifetime.

The world should never bother for Bashir arrest unless George Bush comes back to rule!. All the countries which agreed to trap Bashir should he across the territories, have repulsed their promises. Thus Bashir is very free to even visit USA!

Tueney,
Bashir is not free to visit the USA and would be arrested by them if he tried.
As the ICC does not have a police force it cannot arrest Bashir but relies on other countries to arrest him.
All signatories to the ICC are obliged to arrest him but as we have seen some political leaders of these countries are more concerned about themselves instead of seeing justice being done.

Mr.Tueny the arrest of this killer called Omar BASHER would never happen eigher in middle East nor in Africa even....Once again,George W.Bush will never come back to the power again because it is America policy you won two term no more than that...So,I know it might happen one day if the savage Omer still a live the ICC may capture him.But now the so called ROME Statute are just making their money

Bashire is an American especial friend than Kiir the corrupted President in all the entired World, like what Goedon Bauy said last year he replace Salva Kiir Mayardit by organizing all the 6 Rebells into one commands under him and make them very strongs to topple the SPLM regime Bashire was and is very Strong leader overall the East African Countries American administrative make as an allian

Mr bolman for your information Corruption is better then dictatorship. money can brought brought back but what about the blood thirsty the lives of innocence northern people iam wory about your life.check out to stay Carfuly with bhasir he can even kill u if you try to correct him look all the greatest men , politician , opposition leader and some businessmen run to exile some are here in south S

Kamal those who accepted to be killed by Bashir let him kill them because dogs can’t baking while tiger near to them those who aislike Bashir they distant themselves from him and can time to bakibg until the helpers will come to them the same thing you can’t laughs while thers is food in your mouth as sure as you can’t pucks your wife while she is on labouring child birth you handled dictatorship

you handled dictatorship because you know is the killer but you can’t recognized the thives without catching them it can take you some years to catching them according to my knowledgeable dictatorship is better than corruption because we see them and we can know them one by one within one second it wouldn’t take us long to rebels and mobilizing poeple against dictators because they see and know

Let’s us Pray..........Amen........Amen............Amen"
Am waiting to listen the news of the arrest of sudan president. Bashir today is going to be arrest by chadian government under the rul of president Idris Debi commanded by ICC.

Omar Al Bashir is a good servant of Satan, his service to Satan exceeds Hitler, Stalin, Mau and Polpot combined. The gnostic rulers of this world who worship Lucifer, have no plans to either arrest or oust Al Bashir, they will use all necessary means at their disposal to keep the butcher of Khartoum in power.

According to Russian born Satanist Helena Patrovana Blavatsky, ’evil’ is a necessity in, It is a necessity for progress and evolution (The Secret Doctrine, 11, p. 389) "It is Satan who is the God of our planet and the only God." The Secret Doctrine. pages 215, 216, 220, 245, 255, 533,(VI)

If one has to rethink the issue of Bashir’s arrest, it wouldn’t be easy to find out exactly where the problem lies.... I PERSONALLY DON’T KNOW WHO IS GONNA ARREST THIS MAN WHETHER TOMORROW OR IN THE NEAR FUTURE, ONLY GOD KNOWS HIS FATE.

why these fucked African leaders supporting this insect call Bashir when thousand life had lost by Bashir one is not equal to two.
African leaders are all murderer they will never arrest Bashir even though his country is ICC member. coward Chadian president don’t open your again of being ICC member.

Will the Obama administration fix its Sudan policy?2015-08-02 20:43:08
By Ahmed Hussain Adam
President Obama concluded his three-day symbolic visit to Africa this week, but the 12-year old genocide of Darfur is still unfolding. One would welcome Obama’s achievements (...)

Land ownership and conflict of laws in South Sudan 2015-08-01 05:39:05
By Ajo Noel Julious K.
Land in South Sudan is a prickly thing, complicated even further by the confusion associated with legal land ownership. The parallels and discrepancies between provisions (...)

In memoirs of Dr John Garang de Mabior 2015-07-30 06:14:54
By Mabor Maker Dhelbeny
The event of commemorating this day, as a memorial day of our martyrs since 1955 to 2005 was because of the Late Dr John Garang de Mabior. He died in a helicopter plane (...)